Simplicity
by Shauds02
Summary: Steph just went there for the coffee, and okay because the word on campus was the guy doing the foam art was supposed to be hot. She didn't expect hot Foam Guy to be Jason Todd, and he didn't expect the job he'd taken as a joke to put him back on the Bat's radar. They're both used to plans going awry, but maybe this time it'll be a good thing.
1. First meeting

For once in her life, Stephanie's first meeting with one of the Bats didn'thave anything to do with bullets or crime or bricks to the head or any kind of violence at all.

She was just checking out a once obscure coffee place that had exploded in popularity over like a week, you know, something completely normal.

Everyone she asked said the appeal had something to do with the foam art.

Well, according to her esteemed fellow scholars, it was the guy doing the foam art.

Stephanie, being the social, curious person she was went along with some college friends - and a not so friend by the name of Jordanna - one slow lunch hour to see what all the chatter was about.

She was just getting coffee, and unless you'd just woken up after a sleepover at Wayne Manor, getting coffee was supposed to be one of the least violent things a person could do. It was all the proof she needed that the universe had a weird, ironic sense of humour that it was when she happened to meet one of the supposedly most violent people ever.

She'd just looked up from their discussion about what to order when she got a glance at the guy behind the counter. Her mouth stopped working and she had to do a double take just to make sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing.

Jason Todd. Mister Scary mcShooty Stabby crime lord himself; chatting it up with his giggly customer while he worked on crafting her foamy latte into a cutesy rabbit.

Maybe she wouldn't have been as shocked as she was if it weren't for the fact that he was actually, you know smiling, resting against the counter as relaxed as could be, his teal eyes bright and alive.

He finished with a flourish and handed the girl her coffee with a wink and a crooked, flirty smile.

Steph's friends caught her staring and, misreading the situation entirely, immediately went to chattering about how she'd fallen in love with the mysterious foam guy at first sight. She didn't bother correcting them because that worked like, never. It was easier to just endure the good laugh they had at her expense. Besides It wasn't worth giving anyone more ammunition to use against her.

It was something she was sure they'd be forgetting about in a couple days.

Then they reached the front of the line and he directed that smile at them. Okay wow, his eyes really were stupidly bright and somehow really blue while also being really green.

"And what can I do for this flock of..." Jason looked up from rearranging his station and whatever he'd been about to say didn't't make it past his lips. He blinked owlishly at Stephanie, then the group of girls who broke into a new fit of giggles and demanded she be the one to place their orders with many nudging eblows and faux sly glances.

She listed off the various sugary concoctions they called out, and Jason moved with much less of a flurry than he'd shown his previous customers. He kept looking up and scanning the shop like he expected an army of ninjas to burst in through the windows at any second.

Or maybe she was just projecting, cause she was sort of expecting something along that line to go down.

When he was done he smiled charmingly at Steph's friends, who were less than satisfied with his lack of flare and offered them the coffee for free on account of their beauty making him speechless.

It satisfied her friends and ensured that Steph would be the victim of their teasing for many a day. Jason flagged down his manager, and after a hurried conversation spoken too low for her to make out, slipped through a door marked employees only with an apologetic smile at his fellow employees.

Steph didn't really pay much attention to her dismayed fellow customers, other than the fact they were, well dismayed. She was too busy watching the hurried movement of the hand Jason had raised to fire off a rapid flurry of sign language that she only barely deciphered.

With a huff she studied the shape of the little bird in her coffee. Sure, meet him out back, like she wasn't in the middle of some much needed social interaction outside of a freaking mask.

Jordanna was giving her the stink eye - but what else was new - as they moved to the assortment of snacks on display, and her friends were already working themselves up to another round of friendly teasing.

Steph claimed the need for a bathroom break and slipped out the window to see what Jason wanted.

O

O

O

He was resting in a plastic white chair, eyes closed and head tilted back to catch the sliver of rare Gotham sunlight that made it into the narrow alleyway.

Another state she wasn't used to seeing him in, though granted the little she knee of him 'had' been gathered from only a handful of far off glances and tiresome rants about his methods or attitude or well, whatever he did within sight of the other Bats.

She tried to commit to memory what was probably a rare sight, might have even snapped a quick picture if he hadn't straightened up and snapped to full alertness the second he noticed her approach.

In barely a second he'd tensed up, standing with his shoulders pulled back in a way that made him look even bigger than he was - and man was he big, those aforementioned far off glances really didn't do him justice.

"So where're the rest of your little friends, or they send you to make sure I'm not putting the blood of Gotham's scum in the coffee all on your lonesome." His smile - if something so bitter could be called that - was razor-sharp and his eyes roamed all over the alley.

Yes, this was a lot less weird and and a little more in line with what she would have expected from him. This, she could han...

"Wait, blood in the coffee?" Her face screwed up in disgust and she shook her head, shuddering. "Gross, why would you even say that? I still gotta drink it when I get in there? And did anyone ever teach you the term 'playing it cool'? Now my friends are gonna be on my case for weeks about my and Foamguy's 'instant connection'." She made air quotes around the last part, then propped her hands on her hips. He stood watching her she spoke, his smile now morphed into a scowl. Steph tugged on the hem of her sweater, resisting the basic survival instinct that demanded she avert her gaze.

"Also, it's kinda sucky of you to just assume I go around spying for your messed up family. I'll have you know, I am a college student with a very busy schedule."

"Then what 'are' you doing here?" He asked, looking less sure of himself as his eyes darted to the door that would take him back inside.

"Dude I don't know if you heard, but you're kinda the talk at Gotham U, and I go to Gotham U, and you were just supposed to be this hot guy that everyone 'has' to get a look at."

"Oh." He blinked at her and sort of folded in on himself, shoulders dropping and fingers hooking into his pants pockets. His face turned away from her and this little scrunchy thing before he looked back at her, rocking back on his heels a little. "Really?"

"Yeeeeaah." She drawled. "So what are you doing here anyway, the crime lord gig not working out for you, get laid off, or overthrown or... fake assassinated?"

Jason snorted and dropped back into his chair. "A certain someone thinks 'the crime lord gig' is beneath me, and I should be doing better for myself." He smirked as he said it, tucking his arms behind his head.

"So you took a minimum wage job out of spite?" Steph asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jason chuckled and nodded, then almost immediately let out a wince and pulled up his feet. "Didn't think it'd suck this bad." He said, wiggling off his shoes. "Still worth it for the look on her face when she found out." He looked back to Steph with a suspicious frown. "They really didn't send you here to rope me into taking on one of their cases or something?"

"Would that have worked, even? Like, you don't even know me." Steph cocked her head to the side and scratched her foot along some of the litter scattered along the ground.

Jason shrugged and raked a hand though his mess of curls, making the fabric of the uniform that was maybe a tiny bit too tight on him bunch around his arms, giving her a glimpse of the muscle definition beneath.

"Yeah well, like I said, I'm just here for the coffee, kinda disappointed in the eye candy part."

"What?!" Jason gasped, whipping his head back at her with his mouth agape in the most over the top expression of dismay she'd ever seen. "You wound me Blondie, truly and deeply."

Steph laughed, smothering the sound behind her fist as she took a step back toward the bathroom window while he lost the battle against letting his offended pout shift to a smile.

"I gotta go back before my friends think I ditched them." She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder as she backtracked.

He waved her off and settled back into his patch of sunlight to relax for the rest of however long his break was supposed to be.

By the time she got back inside, the foamy bird creation he'd left on her coffee had been stirred away. Which sucked because she'd barely gotten a couple seconds to look at it.

She'd just have to come back sometime for another one.

 ** _xxxxxxxxxxx_**

 ** _This is what happens when I try to write a fluffy one shot to fix writers block for something else._**

 ** _There'll be about four chapters because there is not enough JaySteph in the world and the rest of the Batfam will make some appearances._**

 ** _Also, there is not enough JaySteph in the world._**


	2. Pretty things

Going back to the coffee house was easier than Steph thought it would be. Granted that was probably because she'd half convinced herself that she'd imagined the barista being Jason. Not that she'd expected it to be a mission. Just thought she'd have some reservations about showing up again when he'd been pretty clear about being put off by her presence despite his friendly demeanor.

"Didn't expect to see ' _you_ ' back here." Jason's arms were folded on the counter top as he leaned forward, relaxed as could be with a friendly smile on his face. "Just couldn't help but come back and feast your eyes on aaall of this, huh?"

And yeah, she hadn't just imagined the barista being Jason, hadn't imagined his eyes being that stupidly bright either.

"No!" Stephanie said maybe a little louder than she'd meant to, feeling her face flare up a little at his crooked, cocky smile and knowingly raised eyebrows. "Well, yeah okay, maybe a little." The guy doing the art ' _was_ ' supposed to be half the draw, wasn't he? Steph fixed her eyes on the chalkboard menu behind him. "But I'm mostly here for the coffee, okay."

"Well yeah..." Jason blinked a few times, smile slipping a little as his brow furrowing in mild confusion. "That's what I… Wait what did you ' _think_ ' I was talking about?"

If Steph's face had been warm before, now it was on fire, and her attempts at coming up with an answer were halted before she could squeeze them out of her throat by him leaning really close to peer at her with slightly narrowed eyes.

A second later he was back comfortable on his side of the counter, arms wrapped tightly around his midsection as though in an attempt to contain the laughter that shook his body. It only took him a couple of seconds to calm down, but she was already on the verge of punching him.

Well okay, maybe not punching, because she was trying to be a nice person, but she'd bet she could convince Cass to swap out his bullets for glitter bombs or something.

"Just messing around Blondie." He held up one hand placatingly while using the other to wipe tears from his eyes. "What can I get you?"

"Dark chocolate latte." Steph sullenly propped her elbows on the counter and rested her head in her hands. "And all the extras you can cram in, and draw something pretty on top." She still needed a picture of the coffee art so she wasn't the only one in her friend group who didn't have one.

He gave her a sloppy two-fingered salute and a cheeky grin as he turned to prepare her drink.

"Something pretty, huh?" He licked his bottom lip as he slid the coffee between him and Steph, then with something that looked at like a long toothpick began etching a design in the foam.

She leaned closer to watch, but found her eyes drifting from the cup to his intensely focused face with increasing frequency. His brows were drawn close together, as he worked, his mouth slightly open while his cheek bulged a little where he poked at it with his tongue.

"Where'd you even learn this?" She asked, watching him drag darker foam to the surface and shape it. " _Why'd_ you learn it?"

"Customer came in and asked." He said before slipping his bottom lip between his teeth. "Didn't know what she was talkin bout till she showed me a video." He glanced up to shoot her a quick smile. "Went home and practiced till I got it right. Spent ' _so_ ' much money on coffee supplies."

"That's adorable." She said, imagining him bent over a row cups in his Red Hood gear, trying to master the art of cutesy coffee art.

Jason snorted and dusted her coffee with a fine later of powder, then stood up and spun it around to present her with the image on top.

"One sugar overdose with the prettiest thing I've seen all day." He said with a grin that Steph had to drag her eyes away from to look down at what he'd drawn.

A cartoony girl's face with a chocolate powder blush, resting her head in her hands, Steph picked it up to study it closer. "Aw it's so cute." She said, tracing her eyes over the sparse little details. Not a flowery design like she'd been expecting when she'd asked for something ' _pretty_ ', but…

"Yeah, you are." He winked at her, and she blushed, turning down at the coffee again so she wouldn't have to deal with his teasing again, instead looking at the foamy girl's pouty face, her little balled hands.

"It's me?" She gasped at the design again, looking quickly between it and him as Jason's smile grew. "That's so sweet."

"Well, you wanted something pretty." He said, angling his body away from her and raising a hand to scratch at the back of his neck in a gesture that almost had him looking a little self-conscious. "Blondie?" He leaned in a little closer, eyes wide and earnest.

"Yeah?" She asked, tucking a stray bit of hair behind her ear and averting her gaze.

"You're holding up the line." He whispered loudly, an overconfident smirk spreading across his face.

Steph's face whipped to the row of people waiting behind her, none of whom seemed very happy with her. She sputtered out and apology and backed away to the sound Jason's laughter.

O

O

O

Jason didn't really mind working at the coffee house, might have stayed on even if it hadn't gotten such a priceless reaction from Talia. Sure being on his feet for almost a solid eight hours a day added up, and the uniforms were kind of tacky, and there was that one guy, manning the other station that he just couldn't stand.

But it had its good points too. Free coffee, an almost relaxing atmosphere – maybe someone else would have disagreed, but with the life he lived, even the busiest coffee shop was a vacation – and well, getting positive attention for once was a huge plus too.

It was almost surreal waking up in the mornings and going to an actual job like a normal person, pretending he gave a damn what the local sports team was up to, chatting with co-workers about things like taxes and public transport instead of, you know, a grisly murder scene. None of those were things he'd ever really gotten the chance to experience. It was… nice.

Also nice was the patronage of a certain vivacious blond he'd never had the chance to even be in the same room as long enough to strike up a conversation with before. Speaking of…

"Back again huh, guess I'm just…wah!" He backed a step away from his counter, when the other girl just… appeared besides Blondie, from where he had no freaking idea but he was getting his manager to put bell in front of his counter to make sure it didn't happen again.

"Jason." Cassandra Cain said, watching him with a faint smile, her hands tucked innocently behind her back.

"Cassandra." Jason returned with a nod of his head. He gave her grinning friend a quick glare before turning back to the girl who was maybe legally his sister, or would have been if he weren't legally dead.

"Draw me." Cass patted her chest, still smiling. She pulled out a cell phone and showed him the screensaver. "Please."

The bat signal. Taking a quick glance at the crowded coffee house, he concluded that he really didn't have time to draw something very complicated on her coffee.

A quick glance at Cass and he decided he didn't really care. How she could be more manipulative than her adoptive father with only three words was a question he was pretty sure had no answer.

"Okay then, which coffee?"

Cass frowned at him, then exchanged a look with Blondie, who whispered something into her ear. Cass turned back to her with a determined frown.

"With the most chocolate."

Jason nodded, and if he put just a little more chocolate into the drink than he was actually supposed to, well no one had to know.

Cass watched with even more fascination than Blondie had as he sketched out the design, careful to make it more the slight variation she wore on her chest rather than Bruce's, then adding a few clouds around the border to fill up the blank spaces. When he was done, she cradled the cup close to her chest with an almost proud smile and motioned him forward with one hand.

He complied and she stood on her toes to pat his head fondly before shooting him one final smile as she carried her coffee to the nearest table and began taking pictures of it with her cellphone.

"Look at you all proud of yourself." Blondie said smugly, dragging his attention off Cass. "So precious."

"Low blow Blondie." Jason shook his head and sniffled. "So, so low. How am I supposed to appreciate the vision of beauty before me with my sis… Cassandra right there."

The blonde's cheeks were almost immediately tinged a pretty pink, making her look even more alive if that was possible, and he forced himself to talk before he had the chance to do something ridiculously embarrassing.

"What'll it be for you today?"

"Same as last time." She turned away and one glossy lip disappeared beneath her front teeth.

Jason took as much care crafting the petals of the flower her laid atop her coffee as he could without his manager getting on his ass about making the other customers wait too long again. Kinda hard when she was leaning in close enough that he could smell her vanilla scented perfume, but if it took a little longer it wasn't like his was the ' _only_ ' station in the shop.

Blondie turned the cup over in her hands to examine the design as she stepped away to allow the next person forward. "I can't believe I thought you'd be scary." She chuckled. "This is really cool Jason."

He waved her off and turned quickly to hide his grin by taking the next order, only to catch sight of one of his co-workers making googly eyes at Cassandra. Jason caught the man's eye and jabbed a furious finger at him with the harshest glare he could muster.

He knew he'd had a good reason for hating that guy.

O

O

O

"Should I be marking you down as a regular?" Jason grinned at her as she stomped up to the counter.

"Coffee Todd, now." Blondie said, body language basically screaming ' _pissed off'_ even without the warning fist she raised. "Don't test me."

"Gorgeous ' _and_ ' violent?" He said, widening his eyes and pressing one hand to his chest. "Be still my beating heart."

Her expression was almost bemused if not for the small pout on her lips.

He opted for something quick instead of overly fancy and poured the foamy milk into a separate flask before he brought it and the coffee over to her where he dropped some different flavorings into the milk, and held up a finger and motioned for her to wait.

"So what has my favorite customer in such a tiffy?" He asked as he poured the milk, which took the color of the flavorings and streamed out in different shades of brown, in carefully spaced zigzags across the cup.

"No one says tiffy anymore Jason." She said without bite as he finished the design off by dragging the stream of milk over the other, transforming it into a stylized leaf shape. He offered her the cup with a bow and finally she grinned as she accepted it. "Pretty." she tilted the cup, watching the patterned foam wobble with her movements. "Hey does this work with other colors?"

"Yeah, but I don't really keep the dyes at my station." He shrugged and watched her take an incredibly slow sip of the coffee in an attempt to not mess up the pattern, as her eyes shadowed over again. Yeah, she was pissed and he hadn't been the one to do it. That meant he couldn't rile her up himself.

Jason poked at his cheek with his tongue and gave his counter an unnecessary wipe down with a damp rag as she turned away.

"Blondie." He called and she tilted just enough to face him, likely expecting him to make another joke at her expense. "I'm almost on break. Wanna grab a late lunch?"

"With me?" Her brows scrunched together suspiciously.

"You see any other lovely blondes in this dum…" His manager just happened to catch his eye and Jason quickly corrected his wording. "Fine establishment?"

Her arm shot out immediately to point at one of the other random blonde girl's in the shop and Jason chuckled at her unimpressed frown.

"Fine." She gave up on preserving the pattern and took a fuller sip of her coffee that left her with a dollop of foam on her nose.

"Right. Just lemme finish here and meet me out back in ten." He said as he moved to take the next customers order. "My manager must be Bruce's distant cousin or something, cause the guy's watching me like a hawk."

O

O

O

Steph scratched at her empty coffee cup fifteen minutes later alone in the alley where she'd first spoken to Jason and tried to figure out why the hell she'd agreed to wait for him at all. He probably wasn't even going to show, was probably watching her from a window somewhere laughing his ass off.

First she has to deal with a gaggle of idiots at college who thought it was funny to be as obnoxious as possible about nothing, spurred on by Jordanna of course, who she couldn't even punch, because they were civilians and that was a big no-no in everyone's eyes, no matter how mad she was. And just plain slapping them would make it look like Steph had a short temper – she did but she didn't want it to look like she did.

Then she'd been stupid enough to agree to lunch when she ' _knew'_ she should have said no.

At least Dick had eventually told the kid off. She grumbled and tossed the cup into the nearest dumpster and kicked off the wall she'd been leaning against to march herself right out of the alley and to a training room where she could punch something.

"Blondie?"

The call was accompanied by the door swinging open with a loud ' _crash_ ', followed by another crash as he shut it again, eyes darting up and down the alley looking for her.

Steph pivoted on her heel to tell him off for making her wait and caught his eyes just as they landed on her and his shoulders sagged down in relief as he slipped a leather jacket on over his uniform.

"You said ten." She folded her arms, refusing to be swayed by the near helpless frown on his face as he tried to disentangle the heavily knotted scarf in his hands as he jogged up to her.

"Sorry, my managers being a real hardass today." He diverted his glare from the scarf to the door for a second and she pulled the bright green fabric out of his hands. She started working out the knots wondering how the hell they'd even got there as he winced. "How bout lunch is on me?"

"Yeah, okay." She pulled him down to wrap the scarf around his neck.

He grinned at her and threw an arm around her shoulders as they walked out of the alley. "Now tell your caffeine supplier what's up."

Steph pressed against him – hey, it was winter, she was cold okay, and he was big enough to make an excellent shield against the wind – and felt her irritation cropping up again.

"You ever had this one person you just wanna punch the second you saw their stupid face?" She asked, basking in the relief her face got from the biting cold when she angled it into his chest.

"Bruce, Tim, this guy I work with," He counted them down on his fingers, looking up at the sky as he spoke. "Dick, man do I wanna punch Dick."

"But Dicks so nice, what did he ever do to you?" Steph frowned up at him.

"Got me turned into a tentacle monster once." He scowled off into the distance, then looked down at her with a pout. "Didn't even apologize."

"Okay wow, that makes my problems seem petty, this girl at school just told this guy I barely know that I've got a thing for him."

"You know who you're talkin' to?" Jason said as they rounded a corner. "I've punched people for ' _way_ ' less. If you hate 'em, I'll hate 'em. Dead Robin's solidarity."

Stephanie smothered her chuckle in his side. "That's really sweet Jay."

"Well I've been eating a crap ton of coffee syrup." He said with a far off look that quickly turned defensive when he caught the disbelieving frown she gave him. "Hey don't you judge me, I swear that crap's addictive."

"You know what, you deserve an apology." Steph said, nodding seriously. "I'm gonna make Dick apologize."

"Good luck with that Blondie." Jason laughed, louder than he did when he was inside the coffee house and the casual arm around her shoulders almost became a hug. "Hey, you don't _'really'_ have a thing for the guy, right?"

"Why do you care?"

"Just making conversation." He waved her off with one flopping hand.


	3. Coffee syrup

Jason glanced up at the cutesy muffin shaped clock every so often, wiling the sprinkle-covered hands to move faster and faster as the midday rush began pouring into the coffee shop.

Not as busy as the mornings, midday rush still meant a huge influx of work, more moving and pressure to get things done while still keeping the quality consistent enough to keep those same people pouring in the next day too. He liked the challenge.

Hey, a guy could be proud that his work had such a following, even if he didn't ' _need'_ the raise it had gotten him.

Even still, it was hard to really feel that pride when he was watching the door every so often for the blonde head of hair to peek in from the windy winter streets outside. It was cold enough that her cheeks and her nose would likely be flushed red, and he could offer her the muffin he had stashed behind his counter, to help her keep warm of course.

He was so engrossed in his thoughts than when she finally did walk in, he spun around to get his supplies ready immediately and didn't notice who she'd brought with her, not until it was too late.

"So this is why you've been all buzzed lately."

The familiar, incredibly annoying voice had him freezing with the bottle of red dye poised over the milk.

"No." Jason gasped under his breath.

"Here we thought you were shooting things on the sly, when really you just found a less violent way to _'espresso'_ yourself." Dick Grayson was leaning against the counter, watching Jason with the most ridiculous shit-eating grin he'd ever seen.

"Did you just..?" He'd seriously just made a coffee pun, at Jason, in his workplace. "No." Jason repeated, for lack of anything better to say. "How?" He turned from the Dick to the girl at his side. Her cheeks and nose were, indeed adorably flushed from the cold, the hair that poked out if her cap windswept all around her face.

It wasn't fair.

"Blondie, why?" He clapped his hands over his face, and Dick's grin spread even wider. "I thought we were friends. I thought we'd ' _bonded_ ' over those blueberry waffles." He waved his hand at the extra supplies he had stacked behind his counter. "I brought dyes to show you the colorful art and everything."

"The waffle bond is unbreakable Jason." She said seriously, holding up a clenched fist. "I told you I'd make Dick apologize remember." She nudged Dick in his side and the grin finally slipped off his face. "Go on."

Dick pouted at her, one hand going to rub at his ear before he looked back at Jason. "I'm sorry you got turned into a tentacle monster Jason." He said, clasping his hands behind his back. "I can see how that must have been very traumatizing and I'd like to make it up to you."

Jason waited, silent for a while for Dick to add on to his apology, some pun or joke that would have him laughing and Jason stocking up on extra bullets for patrol. By the time Jason had finished dragging a stream of milk through the concentric circles in Stephanie's coffee, it still hadn't come.

"Huh." Jason frowned, suspicion fading just a little, he looked over at the girl, smiling at them, and thought of how she barely even knew Dick, it probably wasn't east for her to pluck up the courage ask him to apologize. Jason couldn't very well turn him down with her standing right there. "Yeah whatever, I'll let ya make it up to me."

Dick's grin was back, blinding as ever. "D'aw, that's real mature of you Jay. We gotta set a good example for that one after all." Dick jerked his thumb over at the huge windows where Jason noticed the little boy with a pout he likely though was a scowl, waiting besides a huge dog that would never have been allowed inside the crowded shop. "I mean it though. I know it took me a long time to get around to it, but well, better _'latte'_ than never right."

Dick laughed like he was some kind of comedian and just like that, the irritation was back full force.

"Arg, I hate you, get out." Jason demanded, making a cut down the middle of the heart so Stephanie could see the heights of her betrayal given form in steamed milk, as he passed the coffee to her, along with the still wrapped strawberry muffin. "You might as well have my lunch too, not like I'm going to survive till then anyway."

"Aw." She said, smiling through her pout as she looked at the broken heart in her coffee and held the muffin to her chest. "But I promised, I had to do it." She took a sip of her coffee and held up one finger besides her head. "Hold on."

Then she was gone, making her way across the shop, still with a skip in her step that made her hair bounce and catch the yellow light brilliantly. It would have been a sight he enjoyed if not for the fact it meant she was moving away from him.

Dick laughed again and Jason's glare snapped back to the man as a growl escaped his throat.

"What do you want?"

"I'm a paying customer." Dick threw up his hands with a gasp. The expression disappeared pretty quickly when met with Jason's blank stare. It was replaced pretty quickly with Dick lounging practically on top of the counter like he thought there was a photo shoot going on. "Draw me like one of your French girls Jay."

Jason spun back to his supplies fast enough that the laughter he hastily cut off would sound like a scoff, and set to work creating the bitterest concoction he could. The syrup he sketched with on top would make it sweeter than Dick deserved without any more help from Jason. Dick stood on his toes, trying to get a look at what Jason was doing, but the younger man hunched over it and stubbornly refused letting Dick see.

Jason capped the cup before he handed it to Dick with a warning look that was quickly drawn to the girl waving at him from the snack corner and became something much less warning as leaned against his counter and waved back.

Dick chuckled; resting against his side of the counter, so his head was right next to Jason's. "Or maybe it's not the coffee that's got you buzzed."

"Shut up Dickface." Jason resisted the urge to punch a ' _paying customer'_ in his smug face.

"Hey, I'm just saying," Dick shrugged with an easy smile and patted Jason's arm. What was it with that family and patting him lately? "You ever need some help with the ladies, big bro's here for you."

"Yeah, how many women have slapped you already? I don't need ' _your_ ' kinda help."

"But you admit you need help."

Jason scowled and shoved Dick away. "Get out."

"Here, for taking your lunch." She slid a pretzel covered in chili flakes across his counter. "Now you can survive long enough to fill them with rubber bullets."

"Hey!" Dick objected, only for Jason and Stephanie to simultaneously wave him off. "Fine." He said and shoved off the counter with a pout, he spun and actually made finger guns at Jason. "Stay grounded Littlewing. You know, like coffee grounds." He laughed as he left.

"Do you even know what you've unleashed?" Jason shook his head and they both watched Dick twisting his way through the human shaped obstacles between him and the door. "Now he's gonna make coffee jokes all night, and I'm gonna retaliate with death jokes, those'll have Bruce in his trademarked remorseful mood, and he'll get annoyingly self-blamey so I'll have to punch his sanctimonious face for it." He sighed. "Things are gonna be awkward for at least a week."

"A week?" She took a gulp of her coffee.

"At least." He made an emphatic chopping motion with his hand.

Dick finally got back to his little monster and popped the cap off his coffee. He blinked down at the sketch for a second before he doubled over in laughter, much to the confusion of his little gremlin child, who tried to get a look inside the cup again.

He held the cup high above Damian's head and stirred the drawing away before the kid could get a look at it.

"You drew his namesake didn't you." Stephanie side eyed Jason.

"It's what he asked for." He snickered and hurried to take the orders of his impatient customers. Having a job was maybe a little harder than he'd thought it would be, but it was worth it.

O

O

O

Steph could have sworn the shop dropped ten degrees the next time she walked in. The workers manning the other stations were less smiley, other regular customers somehow pulled off being both resigned and frustrated at the same time.

The whole time she stood in line there was an icy cold feeling at the back of her neck that reminded her a little too much of Babs after that one time Steph had taken Cass to a party on campus.

Jason seemed unaffected at least, smiling, and chatting, and winking at the customers that came up to his station. Steph felt something she didn't quite like crawling up her chest at the bow he gave when he presented someone else with his or her coffee.

She focused the rest of her wait pushing that feeling down so she could have it under control by the time it was finally her turn. Her breath still caught a little in her throat when he turned those brilliant eyes on her and she could have sworn his smile widened a little.

Then someone cleared their throat and his smile flickered off his face to be replaced with a weaker, way inferior version.

"So, same as usual or you wanna change it up?" He asked with an annoyed huff, already turning away from her.

"Same." Steph propped her elbows on his counter and rested her head on her interlaced fingers. "So what happened with Dick? Babs was laughing all night, but no one would tell me what was going on. Are you even on the same comm fre…?"

"Long story, maybe some other time, okay?" He slid the coffee in front of her. "What so you want me to draw."

"What's the coolest thing you ' _can_ ' do?" She asked.

He hummed softly and looked excited for a second, but the expression died as soon as his eyes flickered back up to her. "Oooh, can't do that. Only got a couple for ya right now." He rolled in eyes.

"Oh." Steph stood up and folded her arms. "Anything's fine then, I guess."

He nodded and worked faster than he had even the first time she'd shown up, a deep crease between his eyes the whole time.

"Are you okay?" Steph asked after a minute.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" He finished off his drawing and passed her coffee, his hands lingering on the cup just long enough to have her thinking he didn't quite want to give it over to her. "Thanks for your continued patronage, please come again."

He greeted his next customer without giving her a chance to reply, his brilliant smile back on his face.

She held her coffee to her chest and had a hard time dragging her feet away and over to the snack corner and she felt like even the guy manning that was giving her the stink eye.

O

O

O

She went back everyday like usual, figuring, well hoping that maybe Jason had just been having a bad day, but It became obvious pretty soon that wasn't the case. He was polite with her, sure, smiled and got little flirty, remembered her orders and sketched adorable little things on top of them, just like he was with all his other regular customers.

Exactly like he was with all his other regular customers.

She was just another one of his regular customers. She stopped her hand a few inches from touching the door, drew it back. He'd said they were friends, sure… He'd said he thought they were friends. She stepped away from the door and kept on stepping until she'd passed the windows and could support some of her weight against a wall in piece where he wouldn't be able to see her.

But, he'd thought that was funny. She hadn't meant for it to be, Jason had laughed about it.

She turned to peek back into the shop and got a look at him tugging a hand through his hair as he turned to fill another order. There was a little bag of coffee syrup dangling from his lips, proof that, yes, he really was eating the stuff and it was every bit as adorable as she'd imagined. Just as he started turning back, she hastily pulled herself back out of sight and started walking off.

It wasn't like she'd done anything on purpose though, right? The worst he could do if she apologized and he was still mad was yell at her Her interactions with the rest of his family had left her plenty used to ' _that_ ' kind of thing already.

That's how she found herself standing again in that alley where they'd first spoken, a container full of cookies she'd begged off Tim the previous night. She'd also asked Cass to ask Babs to find a way of asking Jason if he'd even be willing to meet her during his lunch break.

She showed up a little early, so of course she wound up working her insides into knots while she paced up and down the alley, waiting for him to finish up inside.

"Gotta admit, didn't think you'd be the one asking ' _me_ ' out." She heard him before she saw him, swinging the door shut behind him. "I'm flattered really, immensely." The grin he gave her was bright as ever, even if there was a little hesitance behind it that hadn't been there before.

"Well you weren't working your way up to it, I had to do the responsible and step in, like the responsible semi-adult I am." She said, holding the cookies in front of her in a piece offering. "They're Alfred's."

"Oh really." He accepted the container, and played with the lid, but didn't open it. "I uh, missed you yesterday. Thought I saw you, walk by, but you were, uh…"

Steph's face turned even redder and she took the chance to half cover it with her scarf. "Yeah, you just looked... You looked real busy, and I didn't wanna bother you, y'know?"

"Yeah it's insane around that time."He finally opened the container and lifted out one of the cookies. "I can barely keep up and I once had to run around London defusing bombs." He shoved his hands deep in his pockets and let out a puff on crystallized air that faded to nothing before it reached her.

"So, not the best time to talk about your traumatic transformation into a monster, huh?" She hunched a little more into her coat. It wasn't supposed to be this hard, she'd planned out what to say and everything, but now that he was actually looking at her, her insides were twisting all inside in weird, not unpleasant enough ways. "I'm really sorry about that, I just, didn't know where else to find you, and Dick didn't know where else to find you, and I told you I'd make him apologize and…"

There was suddenly a sweet, very chocolaty substance in her mouth and Jason was very, very close to her.

"Whoa Goldilocks." He quickly let go of the cookie. "You really got nothing to apologize for, what the hell?"

Jason seemed genuinely shocked, blinking down at her with eyes that were wider than she could remember seeing them, holding out his hands like he was trying to ward something off.

"Huh, but if you're not mad about that, then why are you being so… you know, less friendly." She felt stupid saying it that way, like a scared little girl asking why Robin was avoiding her again, and she wasn't supposed to be like that anymore. She wasn't.

"I told you, I was just really busy." He looked away, scratching the back of his head. "I'm not petty enough to be ticked off cause you did something, nice for me. My boss is just an ass, and he got all ' _responsibility_ ' on me for being _unprofessional_ in the work place and valuing one customer to the detriment of other or some bull like that . Turns out people get testy when they gotta wait, and sometimes those testy people thinks it's best to get their coffee somewhere else, so the workers here don't get the raises they were counting on and... Having a real job suuucks." He groaned.

"You couldn't have just _'told'_ me that?" Steph groaned too around her mouthful of cookie, and sagged against the wall. "I thought you hated me or something."

"M, pretty sure you're unhateable Sunshine." He said. "I got Dick to paint the car hot red, ' _by hand'_ , and Bruce had a cow like you would not believe, made him stay in from patrol to change it back again. Barbara and I laughed our asses off." He had his hands in his pockets as he spoke, but was leaning forward with the biggest grin on his face. "And we've got it recorded for posterity; you gotta let her show you."

"Yeah, wow." She could hardly believe how relieved she was, and then she couldn't believe how far her stomach dropped at her next realization. "So, no more chatting over coffee, huh."

"You can still come around, but…" He rocked back on his heels and looked at the sky. "Talking to you for only a couple minutes a day would probably drive me crazy."

"You think?" She nuzzled her muffler again, letting her warm breaths bring some feeling to her num nose. "You got a better idea?"

"This place is pretty much dead a couple hours later, people cutting off caffeine before bed and all." He shrugged, shuffling his feet. "You could, if you got time, come around after classes instead."

"Sure, I guess I could. What…" She cleared her voice to keep the pitch from increasing a little higher than it already had when his piercing eyes suddenly pinned her down again. "What time do you think is best?"

"Maybe around five-ish, picks up again later, but that's best, mornings are the ' _worst_ ', way people carry on, you'd swear they were making a grab for life itself." He chuckled. "Round five and I can make you the most uppity coffee you ever did see."

"Yeah I'll be there." Steph nodded once, and silence fell on the alley.

The Gotham city alley that was way too grimy and the air too cold for her to be as sure as she was that the warm, vaguely nauseous feeling in her gut was a good thing. She worried about it for a second, but then Jason offered her another cookie and she decided she didn't care.

He wasn't sure she'd actually show up again after he'd screwed up enough to wind her up like that. So even as he hoped, and watched most of the few remaining customers wander out, he found other ways to occupy his time. Like sucking on more syrup, mentally mapping out his nightly patrol route, and practicing his death stare (not a bat glare, he refused to call it that) on Dave over at the food bar.

Yes, he'd bothered to learn the guy's name now, and he hadn't forgiven him for staring at Cassandra like that.

When Stephanie finally did arrive, he wasn't sure which of them was more relieved.

Dave, he was going with Dave if the way the man sagged against his counter as soon as Jason's eyes were off him was any indication. Maybe he'd give the guy a break.

"Geez, it is dead." She said, looking around the shop in awe. "Bet you feel right at home, huh?"

Jason scoffed, already working on her coffee, ignoring the near weightlessness that was close to lifting him off the ground.

"Guess that's why I'm sticking around." His manager was watching him ' _again_ ', guy really had to be a relative of Bruce, there was just no other explanation, but seeing as there weren't any other customers waiting in his line, Jason just sent the man a cocky grin that he hoped conveyed just how much the wrinkled old fart could bury himself.

Stephanie noticed him too, and waved. The manger nodded once, resigned, and went back to his office.

"Yeah he's scrawny Bruce." She said.

"I knooow." Jason chuckled and motioned her over so she could watch him pour the milk, slowly and carefully, until it formed the pattern of a swan in tones of blue, purple and black. She liked purple, right? Had it on two of her superhero costumes, so she had to. Maybe he should have asked.

He focused on keeping his hands steady as he worked, the design along, then etched some dark waves around the bird, doing his best not to glance up at the girl eagerly watching.

"So cool." She whispered, clapping softly as he presented her with her coffee.

Yeah, and Dick's dating advice could bury itself too. Not like it would be worth anything in the long haul.

O

O

O

"And then, he has the nerve to say he's proud of me. Like what the hell?" Steph threw up her hands. "So I slapped him."

The shop really was empty, only people there were those eating and drinking as slowly as they could so they could get in the maximum amount of Wi-Fi mooching before they had to buy another.

Etiquette and all that.

"I woulda punched him." Jason said, dipping a long ginger cookie into his coffee.

"Please Jason." She rolled her eyes, derisively and tried not to look too closely at those arms because he's just had to roll up his sleeves didn't he? "Getting punched by me is a privilege that he didn't deserve, and the sound of a slap is just _sooo_ much more satisfying y'know."

He hummed, his mouth full of cookie, then sipped at his coffee while looking at the palm of his free hand. "Might be on to something there, I only ever slapped him once and he listened to me for like a week afterwards." His eyes narrowed and he raised his hand a little. "My hands are way bigger now."

The little bell that Steph hadn't even noticed existed before she started showing up when the place was quiet rang, and Jason reluctantly pushed his snack aside.

His smile and the usual greeting she'd been accustomed to hearing died on his lips when he locked eyes with his new customer.

"Jason?" Tim said, wide eyes roaming around the shop like he was looking for bombs or something. "And Stephanie?"

"This was not me." Stephanie said sternly, jabbing a finger in Tim's direction before anyone had a chance to blame her.

"No, Dick told me to check this place out. What are you…? "Tim sighed, "I should have known." He turned away and waved his hand at them dismissively. "If you really work here, just get me some coffee, or untie the man under the counter or in the closet, or whatever, I'm really too tired to care right now."

Jason growled low in his throat, eyes narrowed dangerously before he slipped on his ' _welcome the customers'_ smile. This didn't bode well, it boded the opposite of well, but Steph couldn't quiet tell for who just yet.

" You gotta be more specific Timberlina." Jason said, all his weight leaning on the arms he had braced shoulder width apart on his counter.

She was surprised the surface didn't crack. Also, wow, watching him dip a cookie in his coffee had nothing on the show she was getting now, all his muscles tensed and ready for a fight. It might have even been better than when he raked his hand through his hair, further study was…

No, bad idea. She shook her head, you weren't supposed to be ogling the guy who could very well be beating the tar out of one of you best friends in a second. Ogling was for non-violent situations only.

"Like the Deathstar." Tim was looking at Jason over the screen on his cellphone, eyes just as dangerous.

"Huge, on the darkside and powerful enough to destroy a planet?" Jason smirked at the slightly more tense way Tim stood. "I work in a coffee shop kid, I've heard them all."

"Make that two." Tim scoffed and went to wait by one of the tables further back while Jason spun to get the coffee ready.

Steph relaxed a little now that imminent disaster was no longer quite so imminent and…

"Hey, I told you that joke."

"And then spat out the coffee." Jason whispered back, setting one filled cup on the counter and grabbing another empty one from the stack.

"It was too powerful." Her lips curled in remembrance of the terrible day her taste buds had lost the war. "You're giving Tim ' _that_ '? He'll never sleep again."

Jason grumbled something unintelligible under his breath and looked up to where Tim was sitting, still engrossed with whatever he was reading on his phone. Jason's lips parted slightly and she could practically see the gears turning in his head

"Jason, what are you thinking?" Steph asked.

"Don't worry about it." Jason said softly and slunk across the snack corner across the shop, much more quiet than someone his size should have ever been. He whispered something to the other guy and came back just as quietly, his hands full of little blue packages.

He got back and dropped the packages on his counter, tearing them open with a grin and dumping the contents into Tim's coffee.

Salt. Steph ran her finger across the white grains on the counter top.

"Jason no." Steph groaned. "Your gonna get fired."

"Come on, Timmyboy can take a joke, right?" Jason flashed her a grin, all mischief and sharp edges and…

Well it wasn't like it would be the worst prank she'd ever pulled.

"You'll get him another coffee, right?" She gathered up some of the packets herself.

"I'll get him five coffees if you like."

Jason stirred the coffee with a skewer until all of the salt was dissolved he drew the stick back as though to throw it, but gently set it on the ground at the sharp look she sent him.

"Yo Princess!" Jason's voice boomed across the near empty shop.

Steph was only a little surprised when Tim actually got up and walked over to the counter despite the form of address never taking his eyes off his screen. He picked up one of the cups without looking.

"Hey are you still going to Cass's ballet recital?"

"Yeah sure." Steph nodded watching with as much interest as Jason as the cup got closer and closer to Tim's lips.

He blew over the top and took a sip, then slowly blinked once and turned to them.

Calm as he ever was, Tim stashed his phone in his pocket and looked Jason the smirking man across from him in the eye, and raised the cup again.

Jason's smirk dropped from his face, slowly at first, then all at once. Tim, going as fast as the heat of the drink would allow, _kept on_ drinking the salty coffee. Tim didn't break eye contact, didn't even flinch, or frown, and Jason, Steph was sure that was the clearest version of horror she'd ever seen on a person's face.

When he was done, Tim dropped the empty cup into the nearest trashcan and picked up the other one.

"How much will that be?" He asked, fishing out his wallet.

"Just get out of this coffee shop you demon." Jason croaked out, inching a little closer to Stephanie. "Getting to keep my freaking soul is enough."

Tim's grin was sharp as knives as he walked out, waving over his shoulder and sipping on the other coffee. "I'll see you at the recital Steph."

They watched him, transfixed as he walked by the window outside, once again focused on his phone like nothing else in the world mattered.

"There goes my sleep for the next week." Jason cleared his throat, then whispered, as if he was afraid too loudly would bring Tim barreling back through the door like a vengeful spirit. "That man needs an exorcism."

"I know this kid named Klarion."

They watched the door for a few moments more, unblinking, unmoving until a sudden chill had Jason rolling down his sleeves.

"Call him."


	4. Kiss

The coffee shop got even busier once Tim _'recommended'_ it to his co-workers and it was suddenly swamped with executives and various other snazzily dressed people with very deep pockets. It was very nice of Tim, very… mature. The manager was ecstatic, the workers got more overtime, but Jason?

Still waiting for some kind of retaliation, something petty and cold that would give _'him'_ an excuse to retaliate, Jason was hating it. Tim ' _had_ ' to retaliate some time, he had to be drawing it out to wind Jason up, because if he didn't, that would mean ' _Jason_ ' was the childish one.

Childish and very, very, busy. Then again, maybe that was Tim's plan, make Jason work himself to exhaustion and scribble something on his helmet when he inevitably passed out on patrol. That made way more sense, and like hell Jason was going to let…

Stephanie was outside the shop. Jason spun to get rag and a look at the clock while he hurriedly wiped down his slightly sticky workstation – he'd had a very busy day okay, no breaks between customers to clean the thing any earlier. She was early, two hours early at least, and the place was still too busy, he wouldn't have time to make the new mix he'd come up with for her.

He watched her through the large windows, bundled up in her bright pink parka, golden hair tucked under a beanie of a similar shade; he really hoped she'd take that off when she came inside, it was the only bright thing he got to see in the crowded shop. A floofy scarf hid half of her face, but what he could see was bathed in fury.

It took Jason a few moments to notice that last part, and then a couple more for him to figure out what had caused it. Some guy was blocking her path to the shop, his hands held up and a weak smile plastered on his face. She tried to duck under him, got a hand on the door and pried it open just a crack.

"Come on Steph, you really hanging around these snobs now?" The guy gripped her chin and Jason was already setting down a half-finished order to bash the guy's face in for _'daring'_. "Guess your pretty face is good for more than just…"

Stephanie's fist struck out lightning quick, nailing the guy right underside his nose and he reared back with a shout, hands hastening to clutch at his bloody face. Jason, one of his legs already on the counter he'd been about to leap over, was frozen on the spot. The rest of the customers weren't faring much better. She then put both hands on his chest, and pushed him into the snow piled up along the side of the street.

Before he could get to his feet, Stephanie had already shut the door, and was scowling at the blood that had gotten on her fist; she shot an apologetic look Jason's way before disappearing into one of the bathrooms.

The customer Jason had been serving decided he was okay with his order half done, and edged away from the gaping barista to the register down the line. Jason was too busy watching for Stephanie's reappearance to care.

She emerged a minute later, hands clean and her make-up just a little smudged around her eyes.

"Uh, Jay." She poked his leg when she finally came over to his station.

He was still poised to jump the counter. Looking around for any sight of his manager, he brought the leg down.

"I think I chased off your customers." Steph said, with a sad frown, looking around at the people who'd all decided to get their snacks ' _before_ ' their coffee. She hunched down more into her scarf. "That was a, uh, clingy ex, I tried to come here to hide, and he sort of followed me, and… Sorry."

The guy had dusted himself of, holding a handful of snow to his nose, he slunk away, Jason's mind replayed the way his head had snapped back, and the expression on Stephanie's face when she'd decked him.

"You're amazing." Jason gave himself a mental shake to bring himself back to the present. "Shit, you wanna team up some night? I gotta see that again."

"Oh." Her eyes were very wide, locked on his for just a moment, peeking over her scarf; both her cheeks and nose flushed a deep red.

"I mean, uh, you got good form ya know."Jason said a tremor in his voice. "Better 'n working solo and the others always gotta make it a show. A lotta the time you just gotta…" Jason cleared his throat. "What can I get ya this time Sunshine?"

"Something warm and quick I guess." She said, looking around at the queue that had started forming now people could see she wasn't making their barista her next target. She frowned down at the light scratches the jerks teeth had made on her bare knuckles, then looked up to Jason with a glimmer of her usual grin. "So, _'amazing'_ , huh?"

"I'm not even gonna try taking that back." Jason said, ignoring the heat creeping up his neck at the blackmail material he was handing over. "'F ya want I can toss in a couple synonyms too, astonishing, stunning, incredible." He counted them down on his fingers while the cup filled. "Want me to keep going? I'm a walking thesaurus here."

"Trust you to be turned on by me punching Dean in the face." She said, attempting to hide a much wider grin while unwinding her scarf.

"Stephanie, I'd let ya punch ' _me_ ' in the face if it meant I saw _that_." He slid her another tooth rotting abomination against coffee and sketched a quick fist in the foam.

"Maybe when you go all darkside again." She said, then grinned down at the sketch before taking a big gulp of her coffee, making a face as she realized too late how hot it was and struggled not to spit it out.

"Don't tempt me." Jason muttered, body turning to his next anxious customer while his mind turned to other, much more impressive matters. Maybe he should have taken Dick up on his stupid dating advice… Nah, he could figure something out himself.

He cast a quick glance at Stephanie to see her trying to rearrange the warped foam back into the shape he'd drawn.

O

O

O

"Amazing." Steph whispered to herself, a dull ache in her cheeks from how wide and long she'd been unable to drop her grin.

Dean was an ass, but she'd still felt a little bad for punching him out, even if it was just because she'd made a scene at the coffee shop when she's been so sure he wouldn't try to follow her inside.

It was worth it in the end though, even if Babs caught wind of it and gave her the lecture of two lifetimes, and Damian gave her that condescending little eye roll he always did when she messed up and Bruce gave them all that 'see what I mean' frown.

Because it got Jason to call her amazing, and astonishing, and whatever else he'd called her when her mind had blanked out waiting for a mocking add on that had never come.

She'd spent the rest of the day hanging in the shop, just in case Dean was still waiting around – loser or not, she didn't want to have to deal with him, the things he made her remember – and Jason had shot down everyone's attempts to make her leave until his shift had ended.

Now she was waiting out front for him to give her a ride home, and she was very sure that her jitters weren't all from the coffee she'd drank, and the coffee syrup she'd eaten – Jason was right, the stuff was downright addictive once you got past the initial bitter taste and to the sweetness – and the very sugary coffee cakes… Okay, so maybe it ' _was_ ' mostly the huge amounts of caffeine she'd consumed.

She checked her reflection in the front door of the shop, poking any stray bangs behind her beanie and wishing she had time to fix up her still smudged mascara. Her cheeks were still flushed, and not from the cold. With a frown, she pushed the warmth down and spun away from the glass.

This wasn't what she was like, she didn't get all smiley and blushy whenever someone paid her a compliment. She was past that point in her life when praise had meant everything to her, one guy shouldn't have been able to make her feel like this just by calling her amazing. ' _And incredible, and stunning, and astonishing_ ,' her traitorous brain provided.

And just the ' _way_ ' he'd looked at her when he'd said it, like the words were only at the surface of what he was feeling.

She shut it down and folded her arms, hearing the roar of a motorcycle coming from out back.

Jason had changed out of his work clothes, and was now in the jeans, jacket hoody and combat boots combo he seemed to prefer. His hair whipped with the wind as he sped past her, halfway down the street before spinning around in loose circles, laughing almost above the revving of the engine.

The sound was infectious, and soon Steph was chuckling too. He sped dangerously close to a bank of snow on the street corner, and she thought he was going to try and jump, it, but he just gave her a salute and pulled on the handlebars. The bike drifted along the side of the bank before he turned it sharply and sped back to the shop.

When he finally drifted the screeching thing directly in front of her, his face was flushed with the cold, his eyes brilliant with passion and the widest grin she'd ever seen from him. "Afoot and lighthearted, let us take to the road!" he proclaimed, one of his hands outstretched, offering her a helmet as though it was a rose.

And Steph was gone, she was sooo far gone she knew there was no clawing her way back. When she took the helmet, she could have sworn electricity passed through it from him to her. She climbed onto the back of the bike, pressing her body against his with her arms wrapped tightly around his middle.

"Please don't drive like that with me on here." She chuckled, burying her face into his shoulder blades.

"You know you want me to." His eyes sparked again with that passion and he revved the bike.

The drive itself wasn't every eventful, but Steph's heart was pounding against her ribcage as much as it would have had they been dodging bullets in a high-speed chase. So fast, she was almost worried he'd feel it through the layers of clothes they had protecting them from the cold she couldn't feel.

Steph's heart was gone, but she found she didn't mind in the least.

O

O

O

If Steph ' _was_ ' going to be crushing on a guy, she decided that at the very least she wouldn't let it turn into every other crush she'd had in the long nineteen years she'd had to gather life experience.

She wasn't going to pine – shut up Cass, she hadn't been doing that the whole time – or wait around for him to realize exactly ' _how_ ' amazing she was – shut up Cass, those were the words he used, not me – or let herself get so worked up about the tippity, teeny, tiny chance he'd decide he ' _didn't_ ' think she was amazing in the same way she thought he was.

"Cass, I swear to god." Steph glowered at her friend who would not stop laughing at Steph's developing existential crisis. ' _This_ ' was exactly why she had to get it over with before she got in any deeper.

Cass's grin just spread wider and she plucked one of Steph's coats up from the pile of fabric that littered the blonde's bed. "This one." She said, running her fingers along the sides. "He likes green."

"You like green." Steph snapped back, much to her friend's continued delight, but she accepted that Cass, in her infinite wisdom of all her brother's doings, knew what she was talking about.

Cass's only request for payment was that Steph get her brother to actually admit out loud that he was her brother.

O

O

O

Steph was confident standing outside the doors of the coffee shop. She was ready, and able, and looked like a million dollars – all thanks to Cass for the makeup that probably ' _did_ ' cost a million dollars or something – and nothing was going to stand in her way. Not even the nagging feeling that Cass had known more than she was letting on.

It was near closing time, perfect in the way that it meant things going south wouldn't necessitate things going all awkward between them forever. She could leave, and he could leave, and neither of them needed to talk about it when she got her coffee the next day. If she got her coffee the next day, no, bad thoughts, she had to stay positive here.

Determination rekindled, Steph pushed open the doors and strode, that's right, strode inside.

Jason, who'd been leaning over his counter, tapping on his phone screen, raised his head slowly at the sound, then shot upright all at once when he got a look at her. A hand shot to the messy curls on his head, fingers raking through it as if he actually thought that would straighten it out – it remained wonderfully messy and her fingers itched to attempt smoothing it out herself – and his thick, expressive eyebrows shot up to be hidden by his bangs.

Then, whatever he was feeling, it died down in a second. His posture slumped, hands folded on his counter like always. Actually, he looked a little more grumpy than usual. Just like that, Steph's insecurity raised it's ugly, starving head.

"Big plans tonight, Sunshine?" He asked, already getting a cup ready for her to place her order on.

"Maaaybe." She drawled, sliding into her usual seat. "And maybe I just like getting dressed up sometimes."

Jason hummed, and turned the cup around in his hands. "Any special requests?"

"What you made last time was nice." Steph said, plucking a plastic stirrer from the jar at her elbow.

"What that I made last time, I lost count of how much you drank." He said, his back to her as he began filling the cup. "Actually, you drink way too much coffee in general, you're becoming Tim two point oh. How many cups have you gotten here just in the last week?"

"Maybe I like the attention." Steph folded her arms on the counter and laid her chin on them as she watched his back while he worked. He wasn't bringing the coffee over so she could watch him draw this time. Okay, she'd wanted a reaction, but this wasn't it. "And all the free coffee, seriously, when last did I even pay for the stuff. You're sponsoring my budding coffee reliance Jay, how could I ever leave. Course, you having to be nice to your customers is a plus too. How many people can say ' _the'_ Jason Todd is nice to them?"

"Wow, I feel used." Jason chuckled. "Y'know, I mighta been nice to ya either way. You don't have to trap me at work." When he finally turned and gave her the coffee there was a cap hiding his drawing.

He was watching her very closely, eyes flickering between her face and the coffee almost anxiously.

"Yeah, well, hey Jay? Y'know I'm really good at making waffles…" She wasn't seriously considering asking him out to make waffles was she? They'd already had those, and he might have thought it was a friends-type thing and not a date type thing. She needed something more… personal. Damnit, why hadn't she asked Cass for a more detailed idea of what Jason would like? He liked when she punched things, so she could go or a joint patrol, but again, that was a friend thing – sad as it was to admit even to herself.

"Oookay." He poked her cup. "We could get some I guess."

She turned the cup around slowly, chewing on the plastic stirrer while the thought. She made the mistake of looking up, seeing Jason's adorable, sort of confused frown his eyes now almost hidden under white streaked bangs that she wanted again to put aside, and felt her cheeks light up again. This was becoming a serious problem, she'd have to go to Leslie or something in case she was developing that blushing disorder she'd seen once on TV.

"Stephanie, your coffee." Jason pressed after enough time had presumably passed to make him worried.

She didn't have _'time'_ to think about coffee couldn't he see that? She opened the cap anyway, and he shuffled his feet hands intertwining in front of himself as he licked his lips.

Steph hummed, her eyes narrowing at his reaction before she turned them down to the drawing on her cup. The foam was shaped into a heart, and on top of it, he'd sketched a pair of little Red Hood and Batgirl caricatures holding hands with a question mark between them and 9:00 at the bottom.

"You wanna work with me tonight?" Steph asked, her mind trying to slog through the mess of hope, confusion, terror and sheer, overjoyed bliss crawling uncomfortably through her insides.

"No!" Jason groaned, exasperated as he moved from tugging to pulling at his hair, and at least three of those emotions saw fit to crawl right on away, then he dropped the hand completely, balling it into a fist at his side and locking eyes with her with visible effort. "Well, if that's what you wanna do, but I was thinking more along the lines of…" He shook his head, and muttered something to himself she didn't catch. "I'm good for more 'n just coffee y'know. Hear I'm a pretty good cook in general."

"Cook as in…" Steph's hands twisted on the countertop. "Like, real people food?"

"I am a real person you know." Jason leaned on his counter, cupping his head in one hand. "Got a real safeh-apartment near here and everything, with a real stove and a couch with a TV we could watch a movie on after."

"Wait, so, like a date thing?" She blinked up at him.

"No, not a date." Jason scoffed, turning his eyes on the ceiling, then almost immediately fixing them on her again. "Well yeah a date." He shoved his hands into his pockets. "Doesn't gotta be though, just thought it'd be fun to hang out somewhere that isn't my _'job'_ y'know…"

"Nooo." Steph groaned, into her arms, and then almost hit herself when she saw the stricken look on Jason's face, like she'd mauled his puppy, and hurried to clarify. "I came here tonight to ask ' _you'_ out."

"What?" Jason's body sagged against the counter his eyebrows furrowing while he bit the inside of his cheek, and god help her if she didn't want to reach over and pull him closer run her fingers along those eyebrows. "Then what's the problem?"

"Now Cass is gonna laugh at me again." Steph shut her eyes and cursed her friend who'd definitely known what she was sending Steph into.

Jason chuckled, a low, husky sound that did all kinds of weird things to the butterflies nesting in Steph's stomach. "Easy fix. You leave, and we pretend you just got here, _'then'_ you can ask me out."

"That's, that's so corny Jason, I can't even…" Steph shook her head at him, and his stupid, floofy hair, and his stupid crooked grin, and felt one working its way onto her own face. "I love it!" She got out her cell and snapped a picture of his coffee art - way too cute to never see again - then downed the drink, hot, hot, very hot, and ran for the door, ignoring the confused frowns of the guy's at the snack counter and register.

Steph stopped outside and smoothed down her clothes, then bashed open the doors and strode inside right up to the counter where Jason was pretending to be busy with his phone again.

He looked up with an incredibly over the top gasp that had her fighting to keep up her serious expression. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day, she who hath graced me with her presence this cold winters night?"

"That's not the quote Jason." Steph folded her arms and leaned against the counter the way she'd seen Catwoman do whenever Batman was near.

"I improved it." Jason shrugged, also leaning in closer to her, close enough that she could feel his coffee scented breath in her cheek.

"So then Mister 'I'm better than Shakespeare' I got a preposition for you."

"Uh-uh." Jason bit on his bottom lip to keep his grin at bay. She would be biting that lip soon, she decided.

"How would ' _you_ ' like the opportunity to wow me with your culinary prowess, after which we could watch a movie on your couch?" She unfolded her arms and laid them of the counter so she could lean back on her elbows. "And maybe this leads to a night on the town where I punch some people just for you, and hey, maybe that leads to us making out against the batsignal." She shrugged and shot a wink at him over her shoulder.

"Where both Bruce and Barbara will be forced to watch on in absolute _'horror'_." Jason nodded seriously. "That's a ' _very'_ tempting preposition Miss 'doesn't appreciate my talent', but there's just one little problem." He leaned in even closer, and Steph did likewise until there was barely an inch between them.

"I don't think either of us can wait to reach the batsignal." Steph whispered into his ear, and his whole body shuddered.

"There's a break room, managers already gone home." Jason said, reaching over the counter with both arms to pull him over to his side, okay, so _'those'_ arms weren't just for show, he was freaking _'strong'_ on top of everything else. startling a laugh out of Steph.

"What about your customers?" Steph asked as her feet touched the ground on Jason's side.

"Any come in and Dave'll handle em." Jason breathed close to her ear, sending shivers running down her spine. "He owes me one."

"For what?" Snack counter guy called out.

"For not turning you into a violent crimes statistic for the way you looked at my sister!" Jason yelled back.

"Jerk." Dave flipped Jason off, but he didn't seem to care, too busy dragging Stephanie over to the break room, and she was reveling in finally getting her hands into his mussed curls as the door slammed shut.

Her back to the door, she grabbed Jason's collar and pulled his lips closer to press against hers, as she slipped her hands round to the back of his neck, intertwining her, burying one in his soft – really as soft as it looked – hair . Jason's arms circled her waist and pulled her even closer, groaning into her lips. He tasted sweet, like coffee syrup and ginger cookies.

They pulled apart for air, and she tilted her head to nuzzle at the light stubble on his cheek.

"You're gonna have to stop flirting with all the pretty girls that come in here now y'know." She ran her thumbs over his eyebrows, down to his ear lobes.

Jason huffed a breathy laugh against her neck and pulled her back in for another kiss, his hands on either side of her face as he poured all the passion she's seen in his eyes right into her like molten fire, wait there was an actual word for that. Jason probably knew it, but she wasn't in any of a mind to actually ask. His lips lifted just a hairs breadth away from hers, just enough so he could speak. "What pretty girls?"

"You're." Steph closed the gap for a quick kiss. "Ridiculous." She closed it again, this time for a deeper one. She slipped her hands down his sides to bury them in his pockets. Her fingers finding multiple packets of coffee syrup, the edges of a few still coated in the sweet, sticky substance. When she brought her hands up again, they smelled like coffee.

It was her new favorite scent.

 ** _xxx_**

 ** _Hey, look at me finally FINISHING something for once._**

 ** _Welp, time to start on the next short JaySteph piece._**

 ** _I got a list, but I'm open to suggestions._**


End file.
